we know
they know
Siteco makes an enlightened choice with IBM
System x and VMware for SAP ERP
Siteco is one of the world’s leading
Overview
suppliers and manufacturers of
technical indoor and outdoor lighting,
 The Challenge
and also supplies lighting design and
 The Benefits
Siteco wanted to introduce multi-
VMotion enabled the migration to
implementation services. Based in
language capabilities to enable
be completed in seconds, with no
Traunreut, Germany, the company also
employees and partners in Eastern
disruption to the business. The new
has manufacturing plants in Turkey,
Europe and other countries to use
IBM hardware provides 64-bit
China and Malaysia, and sales offices
its SAP applications. This would
support – vital for Unicode
in 20 countries worldwide. It employs
require a Unicode conversion
conversion – and sufficient capacity
1,250 people.
and upgrade to SAP ERP 6.0.
to support at least 30 percent
To prepare for these major
growth in the SAP test and
As an increasingly international
projects, the company needed to
development environments. The
business, Siteco wanted to
expand its test and development
company is now considering
standardize its global IT systems
environments.
virtualizing its production systems
around its central SAP ERP instance in
on IBM System x too.
Germany. However, employees in
other countries would need multi-
 The Solution
To provide sufficient headroom for
Unicode and SAP ERP 6.0 in its test
 Key Solution Components
Industry: Industrial products
SAP®
Oracle database did not support the
extended Unicode character sets
and development environments,
Applications:
Siteco’s IT team used VMware
SAP Customer Relationship
required by languages like Chinese
VMotion to migrate 50 virtual SAP
Management, SAP Advanced
and Malay.
and Oracle servers from the existing
Planning and Optimization, SAP
hardware platform to four new Intel
NetWeaver® Business Warehouse,
“We decided to convert our database
Xeon 7400 processor-based IBM
SAP Solution Manager
to Unicode and upgrade to SAP ERP
System x3850 M2 servers and an
IBM BladeCenter.
Hardware:
M2 with
IBM ®
Intel®
ERP 6.0,
language support, and the company’s
System
3850
of Data Center at Siteco. “Preparing for
BladeCenter®
this major project would require a lot of
Software: VMware® ESX, VMware
VMotion,
Oracle®
6.0,” comments Frank Schäfer, Head
processor
Xeon®
7400 series, IBM
x®
Microsoft®
Windows®,
development work and testing, and we
realized that our existing test and
development servers were not fit for
the purpose.”
“With six cores per
processor, the Intel Xeon
7400 processor series
enables the x3850 M2
servers to offer
impressive performance
while enhancing energy
efficiency. Our database
server has plenty of
headroom for
expansion, and the two
servers running
VMware ESX also have
considerable
performance reserves.
This will be crucial as
we gear up our test and
development workload
for the Unicode
conversion and SAP
ERP upgrade.”
The company was running its test and
Impressive performance
development environments in a
Siteco deployed four IBM System
virtualized VMware ESX environment
x3850 M2 machines: two to support
on a number of aging Intel processor-
VMware virtual machines for the SAP
based servers.
ERP, SAP Advanced Planning and
Optimization and SAP NetWeaver
The servers could not support a 64-bit
Business Warehouse applications, one
architecture – a key requirement for
for the database server, and one to act
Unicode conversion – and had too little
as a standby. Additional SAP
headroom to provide the 30 percent
applications – SAP Customer
performance increase that the
Relationship Management and SAP
company estimated the Unicode
Solution Manager – run in an IBM
systems would need. A new server
BladeCenter on Intel Xeon processor-
and storage landscape was required –
based HS21 blades.
and Siteco chose IBM.
The x3850 M2 servers each contain
“IBM has been one of our main IT
four Intel Xeon 7400 series processors,
partners for several years, and we
running at 2.66GHz with 16MB of
have a very high opinion of IBM server
Shared L3 Cache and 64GB of RAM.
and storage hardware,” says Frank
The servers leverage fourth-generation
Schäfer.
IBM X-Architecture technologies to
provide industry-leading reliability and
“Moreover, since most of our
performance – ideal for business-
infrastructure comes from IBM, it was
critical SAP application workloads.
simpler from a vendor management
perspective for IBM to supply the new
“With six cores per processor, the Intel
Frank Schäfer, Head of Data Center, Siteco
test and development hardware.”
Xeon 7400 processor series enables
the x3850 M2 servers to offer
impressive performance while
enhancing energy efficiency,”
comments Frank Schäfer. “Our
database server has plenty of
headroom for expansion, and the two
servers running VMware ESX also have
considerable performance reserves.
This will be crucial as we gear up our
test and development workload for the
Unicode conversion and SAP ERP
upgrade.”
Room for growth
Testing for SAP applications
Migrating the SAP landscape onto the
In addition to the ERP upgrade, the
new servers was a simple task, thanks
company is also utilizing the virtualized
to VMware enhanced VMotion and
System x and BladeCenter
Intel VT FlexMigration, which allow
infrastructure to perform crucial testing
virtual machines to be moved from the
on its SAP CRM, SAP APO and SAP
older physical servers to the new
NetWeaver Business Warehouse
physical servers without significant
environments.
downtime.
“Almost all of our key business
“With VMotion, the
migration of the 50
virtual servers took a
matter of minutes, and
the whole technical
migration was
performed during a
standard weekend
maintenance period. If
it wasn’t for the fact
that the system response
speed suddenly got a lot
quicker, our users
wouldn’t even have
noticed the change!”
“From the original idea through to
processes – from reporting, planning
go-live, the project only took eight
and forecasting through to customer-
weeks, and was accomplished easily
facing activities – depend on our SAP
by our in-house team without external
applications, so we need to be able to
support,” says Frank Schäfer. “With
test and develop them effectively,”
VMotion, the migration of the 50 virtual
comments Frank Schäfer. “The IBM
servers took a matter of minutes, and
infrastructure provides the flexibility
the whole technical migration was
and performance we need to facilitate
performed during a standard weekend
the development of these applications
maintenance period. If it wasn’t for the
– and ultimately improve our
Frank Schäfer, Head of Data Center, Siteco
fact that the system response speed
production processes.”
suddenly got a lot quicker, our users
wouldn’t even have noticed the
Conclusion
change!”
“By virtualizing our test and
development environments, we are
With the System x and VMware
able to save space in our data center
virtualized infrastructure in place,
and ensure that every application can
Siteco is now in an excellent position to
utilize exactly the resources it needs,”
begin its Unicode conversion and SAP
concludes Frank Schäfer. “The
ERP upgrade – which will ultimately
benefits of VMware virtualization on
enable the company to roll out its
IBM hardware for an SAP ERP
central SAP applications to users
environment are clear: faster
around the world. This will help Siteco
provisioning, easier maintenance, and
gain a better view of global processes
better resource utilization. For these
and ultimately increase efficiencies in
reasons, we are now considering
its supply chain and distribution
using VMware and System x to
network.
virtualize our SAP production
environment too.”
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© Copyright IBM Corp. 2009. All rights reserved.
© Copyright 2009 SAP AG
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SPC03110-DEEN-00 (July 2009)